rossetti critical quotations

Question 1

john ruskin, sesame and lilies, 1865, pt ii

Answer 1

“the man’s power is active, progressive, defensive. he is eminently the doer, the creator, the discoverer, the defender, […] but the woman’s power is for rule, not battle - and her intellect is not for invention or creation, but for sweet ordering, arrangement, and decision.”

Question 2

sandra gilbert

Answer 2

suggests that the fruit is access to the artistic world

males were dominant in the arts and literature

women had to give up a portion of themselves for access

Question 3

simone de beauvoir

Answer 3

“in a patriarchal culture, woman inevitably experiences herself as object and other”

Question 4

chodorow’s “fundamental asymmetry”

Answer 4

“men are socially and psychologically reproduced by women, but women are reproduced (or not) largely by themselves”\

“female economics”

Question 5

marian shulkhauser, “the feminine christ”

Answer 5

• goblins: sin, evil (tempting the girls with fruit)
• laura: adam and eve (giving into temptation)
• lizzie: christ (taking on the burden of sins for the purpose of offering salvation)

Question 6

martine watson brownley, “love and sensuality in christina rossetti’s goblin market”

Answer 6

• goblins: male sexuality (fruit as a sexual metaphor)
• laura: “immature, self-centred sexuality”
• lizzie: sexuality based on love and connection with another person

Question 7

freud’s psychoanalytical theory

Answer 7

• laura: carnal instincts, doesn’t think about the consequences, gives herself over to desire
• goblins: represent sin and desire, sly

gluttonous action of eating until it’s painful is also sinful –> desire for gratification and maximum pleasure